1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to bookmarks and more particularly, to one or more coiled, resilient bookmark(s), each having one end mounted to the binding or spine of a book in a cavity or cavities provided in the pages at the point of attachment to the spine, wherein the opposite end of the bookmark(s) is extendible outwardly over selected pages to be marked and the book is closed, to mark these pages.
Bookmarks of various design, ranging from scraps of paper to ribbons and ornate, removable, metal, plastic and paper bookmarks are well known. One of the problems which is created by removable bookmarks is the occasional inadvertent removal of the bookmark from the book, wherein the page location is lost when the book is moved, jostled or dropped from a storage location. Furthermore, very thin, small bookmarks may slide downwardly between the pages of the book and lodge near the book spine, making location of the marked page difficult or impossible. Ribbons are very thin and opening of a book at the specific pages marked by the ribbon is usually difficult and sometimes causes fraying, folding or tearing of the page edge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An early bookmark which is designed to mark a book laterally from the inside of the pages to the outside, is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 865,092, dated Sept. 3, 1907, to K. Erickson. The Erickson bookmark includes an elongated marking member provided with an elastic band at one end, which elastic band is designed to fit around the book's spine and maintain the marking member in a selected horizontal position on a page. The bookmark serves not only to mark a specific page and passage in the book, but is also vertically and slidably-mounted on the elastic band to facilitate line-by-line reading of the words on the page. A "Book Marker" is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,168,159, dated Jan. 11, 1916, to H. S. Carson. The book marker includes a pair of vertical members clamped to the front and back covers, respectively, of a book, a pair of laces connecting the vertical members at the top and bottom thereof, vertically-oriented marker supports slidably attached to the laces, which marker supports having multiple, transverse slots spaced therein, and further including indicating bars provided with extensions, clamped into the slots, to rigidly hold the indicating bars in a selected position on the marker supports, respectively. U.S. Pat. No. 1,380,031, dated May 31, 1921, to S. M. Abbott, details an "Adjustable Bookmark". The bookmark includes a pair of first members adapted for vertical attachment to the covers of a book, a resilient, flexible member extending between the first members at the top and bottom thereof and a second member removably supported by the resilient member and adapted to be positioned between the leaves of the book. Another "Bookmarker" is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,457,662, dated Dec. 28, 1948, to J. W. Hamilton. This bookmarker is characterized by a pair of spaced, slotted members attached to the binding or spine of the book and multiple, vertically-oriented marker members slidably mounted in the slotted members for marking various pages of the book.
It is an object of this invention to provide a coiled bookmark which is attached to the binder or spine of a book and is adapted to be uncoiled outwardly of the spine to locate a selected page or pages in the book when the book is closed on the coiled bookmark.
Another object of this invention is to provide a coiled bookmark which is characterized by a resilient, coiled, extendible member having one end mounted to the spine or binder of the book and the other end extendible outwardly of the spine across a selected page against the bias in the coil, to mark the page when the book is closed on the extended bookmark.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved coiled bookmark which is characterized by a normally inwardly-coiled, resilient member of selected thickness, width and length and having a memory or bias for coiling in a bookmark cavity, with one end of the bookmark attached to the spine or binder of the book and the opposite end extendible outwardly of the cavity and the spine or binder over a selected page to mark the page when the book is closed on the bookmark.
Still another object of the invention is to provide multiple coiled, resilient bookmarks, each of which is characterized by an elongated, coiled, resilient plastic material of selected width and thickness, the bookmarks each having one end attached to the spine of the book and located in spaced slots or in a common slot or cavity, wherein the opposite ends are extendible outwardly of the slot or cavity for marking a selected page or pages when the book is closed.